MLB 2025

[edjr 6,843]

3 minutes ago, thegeneral said:

They play 162 games. Who the fock wants to see a 16 inning game on a Tuesday night in July?

The NFL plays 17 and has ties

Who wants to see a 15 inning, ever?

[thegeneral 3,509]

Just now, MikeMatt said:

I know why they do it. But it’s so cheesy. Like backyard sandlot cheesy. Not MLB level. Ghost runner - what are we 10 again ?

It’s a bit odd but all the sports all have to make weird rules. The pitch clock, the single timeout for batters, the throw over rule this extra inning rule all help make the game way more watchable IMO.

Manfred has put in good stuff. 

[MikeMatt 316]

2 minutes ago, edjr said:

Who wants to see a 15 inning, ever?

Tigers Ms was kinda fun

[thegeneral 3,509]

2 minutes ago, edjr said:

Who wants to see a 15 inning, ever?

In October hell yeah! When it’s Tuesday A’s versus Marlins in July maybe 7 people. 

[edjr 6,843]

Just now, thegeneral said:

In October hell yeah! When it’s Tuesday A’s versus Marlins in July maybe 7 people. 

not me. especially the way the game is managed now. 

[MikeMatt 316]

1 minute ago, thegeneral said:

It’s a bit odd but all the sports all have to make weird rules. 

I guess you are right. I hate NHL shootout as well. 

[thegeneral 3,509]

4 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

I guess you are right. I hate NHL shootout as well. 

I don’t know all the nuances of hockey as well as MLB. But I think it’s kinda the same thing where they have to have a good way to end the games in regular season so they don’t go on forever. But agreed it’s weird and not ideal, just the best compromise.

Watched every minute of the M’s game last night and loved it. October baseball is the shet!

[thegeneral 3,509]

6 minutes ago, edjr said:

not me. especially the way the game is managed now. 

I was going apeshit get off my lawn old man on the game last night. M’s had a man on 2nd no outs 3 times in extra innings and couldn’t move him over. WTMF

 

[edjr 6,843]

12 minutes ago, thegeneral said:

I was going apeshit get off my lawn old man on the game last night. M’s had a man on 2nd no outs 3 times in extra innings and couldn’t move him over. WTMF

 

it makes no sense and I am not okay with it

[thegeneral 3,509]

3 minutes ago, edjr said:

it makes no sense and I am not okay with it

I get in regular season sort of. Playing the percentages over 162 games. A bunt is a wasted out and all the moneyball stuff. 

In a win or go home tho in extra innings. Madness. They just don’t know how to do it or lose their minds or something.

[MikeMatt 316]

And there goes The Cubbies

[Mike Honcho 5,405]

Whew.  Bring on the Dodgers! 

[Mike Honcho 5,405]

Also, did PCA really think he was going to catch this?

 

[MikeMatt 316]

Is anyone rooting for Blue Jays ? Seems the media is all Mms. 

[thegeneral 3,509]

3 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

Is anyone rooting for Blue Jays ? Seems the media is all Mms. 

As they should!

[MikeMatt 316]

29 minutes ago, thegeneral said:

As they should!

I’m rooting Jays/Brewers but won’t mind Mariners/Brewers

[posty 2,799]

As long as the Dodgers don’t make it, I am fine with either AL team…. I guess the Mariners are more supported over the Jays due to never making the World Series…

[MikeMatt 316]

The real winner here is John Olerud. I read he will throw out ceremonial first pitch in both Toronto and Seattle. 

[thegeneral 3,509]

3 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

The real winner here is John Olerud. I read he will throw out ceremonial first pitch in both Toronto and Seattle. 

Wearing a batting helmet.

[MikeMatt 316]

52 minutes ago, thegeneral said:

Wearing a batting helmet.

Poor guy was an above average 2 WS winner 3 gold gloves and all star and by all accounts was a nice guy. Played for 5 MLB teams and he is remembered for wearing a helmet while playing the field. 

[thegeneral 3,509]

12 minutes ago, MikeMatt said:

Poor guy was an above average 2 WS winner 3 gold gloves and all star and by all accounts was a nice guy. Played for 5 MLB teams and he is remembered for wearing a helmet while playing the field. 

The Ricky Henderson story about this, while probably not true, is pretty great.

[MikeMatt 316]

31 minutes ago, thegeneral said:

The Ricky Henderson story about this, while probably not true, is pretty great.

Yeah really is but Rickey being Rickey it very well might be true. LOL

[thegeneral 3,509]

M’s stole that one. Holy smokes. LFG!!!

[thegeneral 3,509]

Jorge motherfuckng Polanco. Put respect on the man’s name!!!!

[edjr 6,843]

Source: Alex Bregman plans to opt out of Red Sox contract

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46598790/reports-alex-bregman-plans-opt-red-sox-contract

 

Just like I said he would, back in May

[edjr 6,843]

Worst playoffs EVER. No close games. 

HOWEVER.

Quote

MLB playoff ratings have reached a 15-year high, averaging 4.33 million viewers through the Division Series, a 30% increase from last year. This is the best viewership since 2010, fueled by high-stakes games like the Seattle Mariners-Detroit Tigers ALDS decider, which drew 8.72 million viewers. The Division Series had its best viewership since 2011, and the earlier Wild Card round also set records with an average of 4.6 million viewers.

 

[HellToupee 2,145]

21 hours ago, edjr said:

Source: Alex Bregman plans to opt out of Red Sox contract

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46598790/reports-alex-bregman-plans-opt-red-sox-contract

 

Just like I said he would, back in May

Not exactly a Nostradamus type of prediction with Boras as his agent . The 3b free agents are very poor and wouldn’t surprise me to see him back 

[edjr 6,843]

2 minutes ago, HellToupee said:

Not exactly a Nostradamus type of prediction with Boras as his agent . The 3b free agents are very poor and wouldn’t surprise me to see him back 

I said it in May and most Red Sox fans said no way

Maybe they can trade for Devers. 

[TBayXXXVII 2,650]

On 10/15/2025 at 12:37 PM, edjr said:

Source: Alex Bregman plans to opt out of Red Sox contract

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46598790/reports-alex-bregman-plans-opt-red-sox-contract

 

Just like I said he would, back in May

Risky.  I not so sure there'll be a market for him getting more than $84M over the next 2 years.  Unless he'd be ok with less AAV but more years/money... like 4 for $120M.

[edjr 6,843]

Los Angeles Dodgers, $321,287,291

Milwaukee Brewers, $115,136,227

[posty 2,799]

7 minutes ago, edjr said:

Los Angeles Dodgers, $321,287,291

Milwaukee Brewers, $115,136,227

And is the Dodgers salary accurate with them deferring an island for Ohtani...

[posty 2,799]

Latest On Tigers, Tarik Skubal

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/latest-on-tigers-tarik-skubal.html

October 17th: Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press reports that Detroit’s offer after 2024 was for four years and less than $100MM.

October 16th: The Tigers are now down to their final season of control over the American League’s best pitcher. Tarik Skubal is entering his last year of arbitration and trending towards the largest pitching contract in history if he stays healthy.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post wrote this evening that Skubal could seek a deal of at least $400MM. Heyman reports that Detroit’s extension offer last offseason was shy of the $170MM which Garrett Crochet received from the Red Sox in April. Heyman specifies that the Tigers’ offer came before Crochet’s extension.

Much will be made of the more than $200MM gap between those two numbers, but that doesn’t consider the timing of Detroit’s offer. The front office certainly wouldn’t be under any illusions now that a sub-$200MM proposal would be close. Their previous offer came when Skubal was two years from free agency and before the Crochet precedent.

It wasn’t clear last offseason that Crochet would command as strong a deal as he did. That contract was nearly $50MM above the previous top extension for a pitcher with between four and five years of service time (Jacob deGrom’s $120.5MM deal with the Mets from 2019). The Red Sox certainly don’t have any regrets after Crochet’s dominant ’25 season, but that deal pushed the extension market dramatically forward. While it’s not clear precisely what Detroit had offered, it’s safe to presume it was north of the deGrom extension and would have been a record within his service class before the Crochet signing.

Skubal bet on himself and is in position to truly cash in as a result. He’s going to win his second consecutive AL Cy Young Award after posting a 2.21 ERA with 241 strikeouts across 31 starts. He is two and a half seasons removed from the flexor surgery that ended his 2022 campaign. Most importantly, he’s now 12 months away from the open market.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto received the largest guarantee for a pitcher in MLB history when he signed with the Dodgers for $325MM. That was in large part due to his unusual circumstances coming over from Japan. He was an established ace in NPB and widely viewed as one of the two best pitchers (alongside Paul Skenes) who had yet to pitch in MLB at the time. Yamamoto came over before his age-25 season — earlier than any MLB ace could accrue the necessary six years of service time to hit free agency. He commanded a 12-year deal that was three years longer than any other pitching contract.

Among domestic free agent pitchers, Gerrit Cole has the record on his nine-year, $324MM contract with the Yankees. Cole had yet to win a Cy Young but was coming off two straight top five finishes. He hit the market at age 29, while Skubal is on track to become a free agent at 30. Cole’s deal is six years old, so there’ll surely be an adjustment for inflation.

Cole’s $36MM average annual value was a record for a pitcher at the time. It’s now down to sixth — not including the Shohei Ohtani deal — on an annual basis. Late-career aces Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Zack Wheeler have each reached or topped $42MM on two- or three-year contracts. deGrom received $37MM annually on his five-year deal with Texas, while Blake Snell is making $36.4MM per season from the Dodgers (albeit with deferrals that drop the net present AAV to the $31-32MM range).

Those are all free agent precedents. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Skubal for a $17.8MM salary in his last arbitration year. Detroit wouldn’t get much of a discount on an extension, but a long-term deal this offseason would come with the risk that he suffers an injury next year.

The Tigers have signed two contracts above $200MM: Prince Fielder’s free agent deal and Miguel Cabrera’s franchise-high $248MM extension. They’re each more than a decade old and came under the ownership tenure of the late Mike Ilitich. Since his son Christopher Ilitch took control of the organization in 2017, they’ve signed one nine-figure deal — the $140MM Javier Baez addition. Detroit has a relatively clean long-term payroll outlook aside from Baez’s $24MM salaries over the next two seasons. Jack Flaherty has a $20MM player option for 2026, while Colt Keith is signed for $4-5MM for the next four years.

There’s enough payroll space that it’s conceivable the Tigers could make a competitive extension offer to Skubal. If talks don’t gain traction, they’d need to decide whether to hold him for a final season or entertain trade possibilities. Detroit is coming off consecutive playoff berths and spent most of the ’25 season in control of the AL Central. It’s difficult to envision the Tigers being legitimate contenders in 2026 if they were to trade Skubal, even if they built a return around controllable big league talent. There’s a strong argument for simply holding Skubal in the hope that he carries them to a deep postseason run and making a qualifying offer next winter. If they struggle in the first half, he’d be a marquee deadline trade chip.

The alternative this offseason would be to follow the respective Red Sox, Padres and Astros precedents with Mookie Betts, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker. Those teams all traded their superstar before his final season of arbitration. That went terribly for Boston. San Diego did very well on the Soto return and has won at least 90 games in each of the past two seasons. The jury is still out on Houston’s trade of Tucker. They got a strong three-player return but came up shy of the postseason this year. Those teams were all navigating short-term payroll restrictions from ownership that shouldn’t be an issue for Detroit with how little money they have on the books.

President of baseball operations Scott Harris gave a non-answer when asked about Skubal’s future during the Tigers’ end-of-season presser on Monday. “I can’t comment on our players being traded … so I’m going to respond by not actually commenting on it,” Harris said. “Tarik is a Tiger. I hope he wins the Cy Young for the second consecutive year. He’s an incredible pitcher and we’re lucky to have him.”

[supermike80 2,061]

3 minutes ago, posty said:

Latest On Tigers, Tarik Skubal

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/latest-on-tigers-tarik-skubal.html

October 17th: Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press reports that Detroit’s offer after 2024 was for four years and less than $100MM.

October 16th: The Tigers are now down to their final season of control over the American League’s best pitcher. Tarik Skubal is entering his last year of arbitration and trending towards the largest pitching contract in history if he stays healthy.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post wrote this evening that Skubal could seek a deal of at least $400MM. Heyman reports that Detroit’s extension offer last offseason was shy of the $170MM which Garrett Crochet received from the Red Sox in April. Heyman specifies that the Tigers’ offer came before Crochet’s extension.

Much will be made of the more than $200MM gap between those two numbers, but that doesn’t consider the timing of Detroit’s offer. The front office certainly wouldn’t be under any illusions now that a sub-$200MM proposal would be close. Their previous offer came when Skubal was two years from free agency and before the Crochet precedent.

It wasn’t clear last offseason that Crochet would command as strong a deal as he did. That contract was nearly $50MM above the previous top extension for a pitcher with between four and five years of service time (Jacob deGrom’s $120.5MM deal with the Mets from 2019). The Red Sox certainly don’t have any regrets after Crochet’s dominant ’25 season, but that deal pushed the extension market dramatically forward. While it’s not clear precisely what Detroit had offered, it’s safe to presume it was north of the deGrom extension and would have been a record within his service class before the Crochet signing.

Skubal bet on himself and is in position to truly cash in as a result. He’s going to win his second consecutive AL Cy Young Award after posting a 2.21 ERA with 241 strikeouts across 31 starts. He is two and a half seasons removed from the flexor surgery that ended his 2022 campaign. Most importantly, he’s now 12 months away from the open market.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto received the largest guarantee for a pitcher in MLB history when he signed with the Dodgers for $325MM. That was in large part due to his unusual circumstances coming over from Japan. He was an established ace in NPB and widely viewed as one of the two best pitchers (alongside Paul Skenes) who had yet to pitch in MLB at the time. Yamamoto came over before his age-25 season — earlier than any MLB ace could accrue the necessary six years of service time to hit free agency. He commanded a 12-year deal that was three years longer than any other pitching contract.

Among domestic free agent pitchers, Gerrit Cole has the record on his nine-year, $324MM contract with the Yankees. Cole had yet to win a Cy Young but was coming off two straight top five finishes. He hit the market at age 29, while Skubal is on track to become a free agent at 30. Cole’s deal is six years old, so there’ll surely be an adjustment for inflation.

Cole’s $36MM average annual value was a record for a pitcher at the time. It’s now down to sixth — not including the Shohei Ohtani deal — on an annual basis. Late-career aces Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Zack Wheeler have each reached or topped $42MM on two- or three-year contracts. deGrom received $37MM annually on his five-year deal with Texas, while Blake Snell is making $36.4MM per season from the Dodgers (albeit with deferrals that drop the net present AAV to the $31-32MM range).

Those are all free agent precedents. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Skubal for a $17.8MM salary in his last arbitration year. Detroit wouldn’t get much of a discount on an extension, but a long-term deal this offseason would come with the risk that he suffers an injury next year.

The Tigers have signed two contracts above $200MM: Prince Fielder’s free agent deal and Miguel Cabrera’s franchise-high $248MM extension. They’re each more than a decade old and came under the ownership tenure of the late Mike Ilitich. Since his son Christopher Ilitch took control of the organization in 2017, they’ve signed one nine-figure deal — the $140MM Javier Baez addition. Detroit has a relatively clean long-term payroll outlook aside from Baez’s $24MM salaries over the next two seasons. Jack Flaherty has a $20MM player option for 2026, while Colt Keith is signed for $4-5MM for the next four years.

There’s enough payroll space that it’s conceivable the Tigers could make a competitive extension offer to Skubal. If talks don’t gain traction, they’d need to decide whether to hold him for a final season or entertain trade possibilities. Detroit is coming off consecutive playoff berths and spent most of the ’25 season in control of the AL Central. It’s difficult to envision the Tigers being legitimate contenders in 2026 if they were to trade Skubal, even if they built a return around controllable big league talent. There’s a strong argument for simply holding Skubal in the hope that he carries them to a deep postseason run and making a qualifying offer next winter. If they struggle in the first half, he’d be a marquee deadline trade chip.

The alternative this offseason would be to follow the respective Red Sox, Padres and Astros precedents with Mookie Betts, Juan Soto and Kyle Tucker. Those teams all traded their superstar before his final season of arbitration. That went terribly for Boston. San Diego did very well on the Soto return and has won at least 90 games in each of the past two seasons. The jury is still out on Houston’s trade of Tucker. They got a strong three-player return but came up shy of the postseason this year. Those teams were all navigating short-term payroll restrictions from ownership that shouldn’t be an issue for Detroit with how little money they have on the books.

President of baseball operations Scott Harris gave a non-answer when asked about Skubal’s future during the Tigers’ end-of-season presser on Monday. “I can’t comment on our players being traded … so I’m going to respond by not actually commenting on it,” Harris said. “Tarik is a Tiger. I hope he wins the Cy Young for the second consecutive year. He’s an incredible pitcher and we’re lucky to have him.”

No way I am Ok with a 10 year deal for a pitcher at 50 million per year.  Absolutely not worth it.   If that's what he wants, trade him.   

[edjr 6,843]

He will good in a Dodgers uniform

[posty 2,799]

10 minutes ago, edjr said:

He will good in a Dodgers uniform

And don’t forget Skenes as well…

[edjr 6,843]

Just now, posty said:

And don’t forget Skenes as well…

METS will get and ruin one of them

[Gepetto 1,440]

https://x.com/JeffPassan/status/1979378274389364941?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Shohei Ohtani 

3 for 3, all 3 home runs

pitched 6.1 shutout innings

 

[thegeneral 3,509]

6 minutes ago, Gepetto said:

https://x.com/JeffPassan/status/1979378274389364941?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^tweet

Shohei Ohtani 

3 for 3, all 3 home runs

pitched 6.1 shutout innings

 

One of the most amazing and top athletes of our era. 

[MikeMatt 316]

14 hours ago, edjr said:

METS will get and ruin one of them

AND Mets will trade their top 3 young pitches who will go on to succeed beyond what they would do in NY. 

[supermike80 2,061]

8 hours ago, thegeneral said:

One of the most amazing and top athletes of our era. 

Its almost unfair